The present invention relates to furnishings for offices and similar settings, and in particular to a mounting arrangement for light fixtures in overhead cabinets, cases or the like.
Open office plans are well known in the art, and generally comprise large, open floor spaces that are partitioned off into individual workstations. One arrangement for partitioning off the open floor space is to provide movable partition panels that are configured to receive hang-on furniture units, such as worksurfaces, overhead cabinets, shelves, etc. Such partitioning arrangements are usually known in the office furniture industry as "systems furniture".
A unique alternative for arrangement for dividing and partitioning open office plans is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,253, the arrangement providing a plurality of individual furniture units, each of which is independently supported on the floor of the open office. Such freestanding furniture units have a novel modular construction which permits them to be individually arranged and combined in predetermined configurations to create distinct workstations.
In both systems furniture and modular furniture arrangements, light fixtures may be mounted underneath overhead cabinets, upper cases, or similar storage units to provide task lighting for the worksurface disposed therebelow. Historically, such light fixtures were attached directly to the bottom of the overhead cabinet by conventional fasteners, such as threaded screws or the like. Exemplary task lighting arrangements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,203,639 and 4,432,044. In such mounting arrangements, the position of the light fixture in the cabinet is fixed, and cannot be readily adjusted once it is fastened in place. Furthermore, the relative size and weight of the light fixture, as well as the rather difficult location and orientation of attachment, renders installation of the light fixture both awkward and time consuming, and often requires more than one skilled installer.
An improved quick mounting arrangement for light fixtures in overhead cabinets is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,071. This arrangement provides a quick installation without the need for separate fasteners. In particular, the arrangement provides two mounting pins 7 that protrude from a rear side of the light fixture and at least one latch 8 with a spring loaded slide pin 9 that extends from the front side of the light fixture. The slide pin 9 is held in a retracted condition during installation, and then released to secure the light fixture in place. Further, a thumb tab 10 is located on the slide pin 9 to facilitate depressing the slide pin during installation, and is rotatable to a hidden storage position for safety and aesthetics.
However, further improvement is desired. The latches 8 noted above are somewhat expensive since they are assembled from multiple parts and pieces. Further, it is necessary to hold slide pin 9 in the retracted or depressed condition as the light fixture is rotated upwardly into the installed position, thus occupying the installer's hands and preventing the installer from holding the light fixture in a more secure and less cumbersome way. Still further, the thumb tab on the latch 8 is not fully hidden, thus reducing aesthetics somewhat, particularly if the thumb tab is not rotated upwardly to the semi-hidden storage position.